I’ve been getting Brazilian bikini waxes since I was 17 years old (I’m now 27). Throughout this decade of waxing, my poor vagina has been through it all. There was even a DIY waxing session gone awry that led to the destruction of my favorite sweatshirt, my hair stuck to the carpet of my college dorm room and me wishing I had one of those pagers that they give to old people in case they’ve "fallen and they can’t get up." Now that you have that image in your head it’ll be hard to convince you that I’ve since become a self-proclaimed expert on the subject. So you’ll just have to try out my tips and see for yourself.

1. Ingrown hairs don’t have to be par for the course. Even though you can get them after a good wax, ingrowns are usually the result of getting a bad wax. During a bad wax, the hair isn’t ripped out from the root. Part of the hair can still be left under the skin. IT’S A DISASTER. This has happened to me before. Ingrown hair city. So pay attention to what’s going on during your session. Make sure that the aesthetician checks for ingrowns after she’s done with the waxing part.

2. If you have a really bad ingrown hair, you can put a hot compress on it with baking soda. It’ll usually come right out. DO NOT do what I do and take a tweezer and start picking at it. You’re making it worse. And you’re spreading bacteria.

3. Watch what you’re putting on there. Some of those "you’ll never see an ingrown hair again" products have a ton of alcohol in them and are just way too harsh. You may not have any ingrowns, but your skin is probably irritated and you don’t want that either.

4. I keep forgetting to do this, and it’s VERY important. You need to exfoliate in the shower to really keep ingrowns away. Loofahs are good. Exfoliate at least once a week.

After all of that education, there’s a place you really need to try.European Wax Center uses a special kind of hard wax that DOES NOT HURT when it’s viciously ripped off of your skin. This wax, "Comfort Wax," only attaches itself to the hair. That’s the ticket apparently. Whereas everything else just sticks to your skin like glue. It’s warm, purple and there are no sheets of paper. The wax just goes on, cools and then it gets ripped right off. I’ve seen hard wax at a couple of other spots too: Stark and Bliss. It’s newish and it’s the best thing ever, which means we don’t have to suffer through this anymore.

There are 309 European Wax locations nationwide, so if you take away nothing else from this, I sincerely hope that you’ll leave waxing to the professionals!